Mundane SF! (wot a silly name)

[kelvinzero]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mundane_science_fiction<br /><br />I just stumbled over this. I would have encountered it earlier but of course totally misunderstood the intended meaning of Mundane. It's 'Manifesto' caught my eye because I have been looking for similar material.<br /><br />What a crap name though. I thought it could be called Minimalist SF. Anyone got a better one?<br /><br />At first glance it might seem to simply be restrictively hard SF. Im hoping that since it only deals with the least controversal technology, tales will have to be about people and the touch, taste and feel of the future before us.

 

[mcbethcg]

I suppose what I call hard SF might be a subset of Mundane SF.<br /><br />To me, hard SF is SF that uses possible physics only. No FTL, no time travel, etc. So it is mundane. But Hard SF is usually rich in technology. I don't think Mundane SF would have to be. <br /><br />I thought the Wikipedia entry for mundane SF was especially poorly written, spending much time describing non-mundane SF and its lovers.

 

[kelvinzero]

Unfortunately, controversy is good publicity and the easiest way to get controversy is to piss some large group of people off.<br /><br />I actually pretty much agree with the factual claims within the article. On the other hand I love Aliens, Michael Moorcock and Jack Vance. I agree it is pretty irritiating if someone tries to blame global warming on 'bad' SF.<br /><br />Where I think I differ most strongly from the mundanites is that I expect the future we will probably have is going to dwarf the visions of most space operas I have read, without violating any of the conditions of that wiki list.

 

[jackarcalon]

Even the mundane becomes unimaginable if you wait long enough.<br />Assuming that no new technology is invented from this day onward, and there are no other planets with oxygen atmospheres, it would still be possible to colonize millions of galaxies using generation starships and space stations built from asteroids.<br />It would just take thousands of years to build one using existing rocket technology, and many eons to spread out through space.<br />Any society or species with a sextillion members would have to be able to do many cool things.<br /><br />free hard sf novel!<br />http://infinitethunder.tripod.com